"Travis" wrote in message
news:__A8e.45411$9i7.8200@trnddc04...
KD wrote:
Greetings all:

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, my Halifax location
is zone 6a. I am a beginne rgardener.

Anyhoo, last year I was advised to dig up my gladiola bulbs before
the Atlantic Canadian winter came in and froze them all to death.
Fair enough. Thinking myself very clever, I dug them up in the late
summer/early fall, left them out to dry for a bit, then put them in
plastic containers full of sand. My theory was that the sand would
absorb any moisture in them.
Bad idea. With a beautiful spring day today, I got thinking about
planting, and then got the bright idea to bring them out of the
basement today. All three of the three containers have damp sand,
rotten bulbs, and two of them contain about a gazillion of what
look like aphids.
Obviously I've done something wrong, likely several somethings.
Most of my glad bulbs are now toast. Then I went and opened the
stargazer lily bulbs that I purchased a month or two ago and found
some moldy bulbs among the good.

Needless to say, I'm pretty discouraged. Obviously my storage
methods need help (although the stargazers might have been bad in
the first place, hadn't opened the package until today).
Fortunately my peony roots in the same closet still seem OK.

Any advice out there?

Thanks,

KD

Don't take posession of the bulbs until you can plant them. Over your
bulbs/corms in peat moss or dry sawdust and don't seal them up in
plastic containers. Let them breathe. Keep them cool and in the dark
over the winter.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5



Bulb digging- as soon the root "hair" loses it's white colour and become
dark. At the same time chicken also start to darken. Also at the same time
leaves are strongly green. But this must not trick you - the bulbs must go
out. Earlier sorts sooner become mature- also remember that. If you do it
later, the number of sick bulbs increase, leaves are soft and is harder to
dig them out, and chickens more stay in the ground. After you dig them out
break the leaf cover near bulb top, or if you cut it leave about 1 cm above
bulb. Bulbs has to be stored immediately, closed room is needed with good
ventilation, it's needed that the whole amount of air in a room is replaced
at least 20 times per hour. Humidity of air - 70-80%, temperature 28-32
degrees of celsius. It this isn't done, it's possible that all bulbs could
die from Fusarium in a few days. After 8 days of drying on temp28-32, bulbs
are ready for cleaning- all with some degeneration - out(diseases), also
mechanical injuries-out.
Usually is used woden box of size 75-50-10, bottom is of wire coated with
zinc, do not overload it, bulbs need air, of course in a dark. Bulbs big
(hen), and small ones (chickens) need to be stored in a place with
temperature 5-10 degrees of celsius constant, if it is higher new bulbs
(chickens) could dry out and die. But 3-4 weeks before planting temperature
has to be risen to 20 degrees of celsius. Chickens has to be keeped twice by
24 hours in lukewarm-tepid water. Immedeately before planting it's needed to
disinfect the bulbs (in 2%solution of benlate, and 0.2% solution of
fosfern).
E. has spoken.